zoo pics

We went to the zoo today. I'm going to see how many zoos I can get under the kid's belts in their life time. So far, Marcus has been to the Hogle [Salt Lake], Louisville, Idaho Falls and Denver. Jamie's been to all of those if you count him being in my belly at the Hogle. I'm hoping to take the kids and my mom to San Diego this summer. We'll have to get that zoo in if we go!

Ok well, it's a lot easier to upload pics to facebook than it is on here, so here's the link to my FB album

Pics

An Emotional Day

I know I complain about my kids growing up too fast a lot. It's really true though, they grow SO FAST. I know they grow fast, I'm watching them grow fast. The worst thing though, was coming to visit Brittanie. This is the last time I saw Erin and Britt was pregnant with Patrick [at least I'm pretty sure this is the last time...] This was Thanksgiving '08. Marcus was 14 months old. Erin was 17.


Fast forward a few months over a year and this what I come to find with Brittanie.


An Erin with hair and a full set of teeth


And a Patrick I've never met who is already over a year old.


This was us at Thanksgiving '08.

My little man has graduated out of needing his teething necklace, has a full set of hair and a feisty personality.


And my new guy, who I've only just realized that I've not gotten any good pics of him the entire time I've been here. This is one of the last Kentucky pics. My 9.5 month old.


Seriously, when did they get so big? When did this happen?


and I think I'm still in denial that these two even exist.

love these kids

I love these kids. It's nice to have other kids to photograph. Specially Erin! She's such a little model and poses for me and it's so easy to get her to smile. I'm sure Britt would say different, but kids never smile for mom like they do other people.

Only one more sleep 'til...

Colorado!! WHOO!

Can you tell I'm excited? Sabe's packing boxes into the Uhaul as we speak. I would be helping, but somebody decided to take a late nap and now is wide awake in my lap...

rxzr[[[zxxxxxxxxxz[xxs'

He's so profound isn't he? :P

Next time I write, I promise I'll be back with pics!

Holy Boxes Batman!!

Seriously, how did Sabe and I accrue so much crap in the 3 years we've been married? I really have no idea. But I can tell you one thing... It's a good thing I kept all the boxes we used to move here [and move to Lehi... and move to Lynne's place... Yeah we've done lots of moving]. Our living room is covered in boxes. Our guest room is covered in boxes. Our hallway upstairs is covered in boxes. We're drowning in boxes! It's T-5 days until the boys and I hop on a jet plane and escape the world for a bit.

Sabe and I have both expressed our excitement at doing a few things again. Like eat at Cafe Rio, seeing big mountains, smelling the scent of Utah [yes it's got a scent and no it's not bad]. We're so ready to spend time with family that we've not seen in a while.

Marcus is so cute. Before the serious packing started, he began helping me clean the toys up by sticking them in the bin and saying his version of "Good job, yay!" So when we started packing up boxes, he gets so excited and starts throwing random stuff in. Today he actually helped for the most part, picking up all the Jenga pieces and putting them away, then putting the container in the box of toys and then helping me pick up a few of the pieces to his alphabet mat. He's getting so big! He's starting to listen a lot better now that his speech is coming in nicely. He doesn't tune us out as much. It's been nice!

Jamesen on the other hand though... I have to warn anybody that we'll be staying with in the next little bit. He's a HUGE momma's boy. He's VERY clingy, needy and whiny. His favorite thing to do is cry and he enjoys doing it all day long. You have been warned!

Bah.. I gotta go. I'm not finished rambling, but it's what happens when you're a mom of two small children and need to pack up your house.

An Ordinary Day

To anybody who's not a mom, the day I had today would look like just an ordinary day. There was really nothing in it that I wouldn't do on any given day of the week. But this ordinary day was filled with such extraordinary doings by two extraordinary boys that I can't say today was ordinary at all. I got to sit in the best seat of the house to watch my boys be themselves, to learn and discover things about the world around them.

I brought my camera with me a lot today and tried to document my ordinary day with pictures. There's lots of gaps because that's what happens when you're a mom of two small children. You don't get to keep your attention on something for very long. The pics start in the middle of the afternoon. I was pretty grumpy this morning so I wasn't thinking about pics until after lunch.

We bought Marcus a sprinkler today. It's a caterpillar that's arms and legs flail about and spray water everywhere. Marcus was afraid of it [which is quite funny to me actually]. I tried to get him to run through with me a few times but he wasn't having it so I grabbed him and ran with him. When I put him down, he high tailed it back to the other side of the yard, leaving a wet footprint on the pavement that evaporated after a few seconds.

Insert nap time and dinner time. The light was fading fast and Marcus hadn't been to the park in a few days so we hurried and got dressed [they were playing with the water again] and headed out. I brought Marcus' trike in from the backyard so he could ride it and he stowed his drink in the trunk.


Along the sidewalk on the way to the park, there's a small section [like two feet long and a foot wide] that's nothing but white rocks. Marcus always stops and picks up a rock and puts it in his trunk. Well in the few days that we've not been to the park, the field surrounding this rock patch became completely covered in dandelions. I picked a yellow one and gave it to him followed by a white one which I blew at him. He tried to blow one at me, but wasn't blowing hard enough. After a few unsuccessful tries, he held it out for me to blow instead.


Then he figured out that he could make them explode by hitting two together.

For the next 10 or so minutes, Marcus went running around exploding white dandelions while I clicked away and Jamesen giggled.




His smile and laugh was infectious.





Finally I got his attention back on the fact that we were heading for the park and he could ride his trike there. He hopped back on and off we went again. When we got there, I pulled Jamesen out of the wrap. He was happy to be there.


After that smile, he got up and walked away from me. He's getting so good and steady. He surprised me with how steady he was with his sandles on, plus the uneven ground.


What am I going to do with these two?

In 9 short months

Jamesen went from this [a helpless, constantly sleeping/pooping, sleeping through the night due to jaundice, lovable, very strong, newborn]:


to this [a momma's boy who can walk on his own, climb almost anything, feed himself, eat almost anything, constantly babbling, very needy, teething like a beast, hardly ever sleeps, baby]:

As much as he drives me insane when he refuses to nap for hours on end [and falls asleep within seconds of Sabe picking him up], I adore him. I love his face. I love his smile. He's harder to get to smile than Marcus was, but that makes the huge grins that much more worth it. I love his laugh. I love the jaw-dropping looks everybody gives me when they see him walking and find out his age. He's so big! He's growing so fast.

Happy 9 months little man. You are one loved kid.

Getting Ready

Well, our contract here is coming to a close. We'll be moving yet again here soon. The boys and I have a very busy summer! This is how our schedule is going:

today-april 21: pack pack and more pack!
21-28 visiting with Brittanie with Sabe drives back to Utah
28-early May: visit with Grandma LaBare for a bit and soak up as much of daddy as possible
early may-early july: Drive down to vegas [with or without Sabe.. TBA on that one] and spend the next little bit with Grandma and Grandpa Hill.

I'll be taking engagement pics of Nano and his fiance Dawn. I'll also be taking maternity pics of Jake's wife Amanda who's due in early August.

In July we'll be going back to Utah for Jamesen's first birthday part and Carl's wedding. What's happening after that is still very TBA. Sabe will be signing active duty papers mid July and we'll know from there what's going on.

I do know for sure that the boys and I will be flying back to Vegas in early September for Marcus' 3rd birthday [SERIOUSLY??? When did that happen?!?] and Nano's wedding.

Busy busy summer! I'm cringing just thinking about it, lol!

Anyways, so if you don't here from us much, that's why. Packing with two kids isn't fun, lol! They move the box, pull everything that you just put into it out, put stuff in that you don't want in there and rip the box apart. Packing one box takes like an hour in this house! At least Marcus will be good at unpacking. He's pretty good at dumping things out :)